WE WON!!

Campus Movie Fest

We competed in Campus Movie Fest 2018 at Clemson, and boy did we have fun. CMF is a traveling film festival, and the rules were simple:1. Videos must be shot and edited within one week.
2. Videos must be under 5 minutes.

If you’ve followed Inscribe history, then you might remember that we’ve entered several contests before this; four to be exact. We’ve never won anything or have been distinguished, and I admit it was a tad discouraging in the beginning. It’s been two years since we last competed, and I’ve gotten a ton of practice since then, so we felt confident this time around.

This year, 86 videos were submitted, and 576 people contributed. Out of the 86, only four can win a ‘Jury Award’ advance to the national competition. Last night was the premiere, and they were only showing 16 of the 86 films, which is about 18% of the submissions. I was extremely nervous and worried that our video wouldn’t make the cut and be shown at the premiere.

When we got there, we were pleased to see we had made the cut, and the video was shown in the top 16, somewhere in the middle of the videos. As time wore on and better and better films were screened, I began to accept that we didn’t place in the top four.

The awards portion of the ceremony arrived, and I was surprised to say the least. First we won Best Editing. As an editor, that alone was extremely flattering. Immediately after, the announced Jeff, our lead actor, had won Best Performance. I was so ecstatic that I could hardly breathe. Several minutes later, they announced the Jury Award winners, and about halfway through they mentioned US!! I was so taken aback and could not believe what had happened.

Let that sink in: Clemson Film Club, aka Inscribe Productions, a club which had only formed a few months ago, had just swept the competition. Most of our crew had no previous film experience, but everyone was so determined to make a good movie that we threw everything we had into making a real film.

One of the heads of Clemson’s Graphics Communications departments had told me that she had tried to find our club in January but was unable to and had no idea we existed. She was surprised to find out that we only officially became a club about a month ago!

I haven’t been updating this blog as much I should have, but this was too important not to document and share. I’ve had an absolute blast on this project, and I can’t wait for whatever comes next!

P.S. I know this reads like a sappy 80s family flick but bear with me, this is a big moment for me

You can watch our three-time award-winning short film, Shattered Vow below, as well as a timelapse I made of my 22-hour editing marathon.